Cell phone networks appear to be jammed in Manhattan, Washington D.C., and other areas affected by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake that struck central Virginia at 1:53 pm Eastern time.

However all the major networks, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint, said they had found no major problems with their networks.

The CTIA, a wireless industry body, also reported, "The industry's infrastructure appears to be intact, but because many wireless consumers are using the networks, we are experiencing higher than normal traffic."

Minutes after the quake struck, Twitter users reported that cell phone networks were down in parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and D.C., to name a few.

The major networks have been posting network updates on Twitter. The last round of #earthquake tweets came at around 3:30 pm ET:

Verizon tweeted, "Seeing no reports of damage to our wireless network. There was some network congestion in the East after tremors. Continuing to monitor."

AT&T tweeted, "We have no reports of network damage due to the #earthquake in the Northeast, but we are seeing heavy call volumes."

Sprint reps tweeted, "Customers in East may experience intermittent delay making/receiving calls after recent earthquake. This is a temporary mass calling event. To contact loved ones following earthquake, please use text msgs rather than call. Call delays due to temporary mass calling event."

T-Mobile tweeted a similar response, "T-Mobile's network is operational but is experiencing higher call volumes in areas affected by the earthquake. SMS & E-Mail are advised."

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also asked cell phone users avoid making calls if possible, "FEMA is monitoring reports from the #earthquake, cell service is busy in DC, try to stay off your cell phone if it is not an emergency."

The Public Safety Alliance (PSA) said today's service disruptions pointed to the need for dedicated spectrum for public safety groups, "The events of today once again prove public safety's need for dedicated spectrum and illustrate one way the public would directly benefit: better cell service during a crisis (commercial wireless systems were crippled today, but D block allocation would give public safety its own network, helping to alleviate this problem)."

Trembles were felt as far-reaching as Cleveland, Ohio, so stay tuned at PCMag for more updates on the network situation.

Additional reporting by Sascha Segan.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 4:30pm ET with comments from CTIA and PSA, and updates from all the major networks.

Sara Yin is a junior analyst in the Software, Internet, and Networking group at PCmag.com, pouring most of her energy into app testing and security matters at Security Watch with Neil Rubenking. She lies awake at night pondering the state of mobile security (half-true).
Prior to joining PCMag.com, Sara spent five years reporting for publications in New York City (Huffington Post), Hong Kong (South China Morning Post), and Singapore (Campaign Asia, Men's Health).
Follow her on Twitter at @SecurityWatch and @sarapyin, or contact her the...
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